This invention relates generally to networked systems and more specifically to performance indicators in a high-speed communication system.
High-speed network devices within high-speed communication systems may employ disparate communication modules with each communication module handling a separate function for the high-speed communications device. Each communication module may generate a variety of status signals related to the communication module's internal processes. These status signals may relate to the quality of the communication link established by the high-speed communications device. For example, a communication module may have an internal process for handling an auto-negotiation process, such as the auto-negotiation process defined in the well known IEEE 802.3 network standard as employed by Broadcom Inc.'s BCM5400 100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet Transceiver, in which case the communication module may provide status signals indicating the progress of the auto-negotiation process.
A high-speed communications device may comprise a number of communication modules with each module generating its own status signals. The format of the status signals may vary in characteristics dependent on the nature of a variable value encoded within the status signal. For example, some of the signals may be binary in nature, indicating either total failure or normal operation, while other signals may encode quantitative information, such as number of communication errors per unit of time.
Each communication module may generate its own status signals indicating that the communication module is functioning normally independently of a communication module that may be experiencing processing errors. In this case, monitoring a single, status signal or a set of status signals from a communication module may not indicate the quality of the communication link established by the high-speed communications device.
Therefore, a need exists for a method for generating a high-speed communication system performance signal incorporating a variety of communication status signals. The present invention meets such need.